


presents

by kristofferson



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 10:23:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6234883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristofferson/pseuds/kristofferson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He didn't want to do it. Martin didn't want to walk over to that over-excited, exuberant pile of giddiness and tell him "you're out, go squat in the basement, no one wants you here because of some silly, stupid idea that because you're a predator, you're bad". He didn't want to see the shine in those warm eyes fade. </p>
<p>-<br/>It's never fun giving someone the boot, but it's even harder when you have feelings for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. to: bogo. from: bellwether.

**"THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!,"** a voice boomed. **"I DEMAND TO SEE HER!"**

Bellwether's desk mug shook, spilling chamomile tea onto her day planner as Bogo's yells rattled the building. Her hooves reached out and snagged it to prevent further messes and a loud, solid clomping came to her door and there he was.

Filling the entire doorframe, Chief Martin Bogo glared at Mayor Bellwether with thin eyes.

"Are you going to tell me _why_ Officer Clawhauser's been re-assigned to _records_?", he hissed through gritted teeth. Bellwether gathered her courage and suppressed her rage, mopping at her desk with a dainty cloth kerchief.

"The public is in uproar, Chief Bogo. We can't have a _predator_ face being the first thing our citizens see when they come running for help from _more predators_!"

She clicked her hooves together in front of her face as Bogo stalked into the room. Bellwether gestured for him to take a seat, but he instead folded his arms over his chest and flared his nostrils, still glaring as he stood even taller.

"Clawhauser is one of the friendliest faces in this city. No one who's ever looked at him would be threatened." Bogo's expression seemed to soften as he spoke of the cheetah, and Bellwether didn't miss the shift. Her mind ran through what the change could mean until- interesting. Her eyes darkened and she smiled to herself. This was a very, very interesting development.

"That doesn't change the fact that he's a predator. He could go savage at any moment, what with this wave of attacks sweeping the city. It's nothing personal- it's just his nature."

"It's not!," barked Bogo. "It's not _his_ nature!"

Bellwether could almost see the steam pouring out from his lanky ears.

"It's in all of their natures, Chief Bogo. He can't help it."

"He hasn't done anything wrong! He hasn't harmed anyone in his entire life, and you're just going to dump him in some dingy office because a bunch of lunatics are running around our city? He's not _like that_!"

Bellwether sighed, appearing almost sympathetic. Bogo's clear weakness for that overweight cheetah would be a very useful pressure point in future, she knew, but now she was not in the mood to argue with him. Time for a good, old-fashioned mayoral shut-down.

"I'm very sorry, but there's not anything I can do about it now. It's finalized, and I think everyone will be happier for it. Besides," she smiled, "Wasn't it you who said you can only do what you're capable of?"

Bogo recoiled at the use of his own words against him. He seemed puzzled- how did Bellwether know about what he'd said before to Hopps? But she knew many things she shouldn't, couldn't have known. Infuriated but clearly walled-in, Bogo turned on his heel and stomped towards the door.

"Bye-bye, Chief!"

He slammed the door so hard that Bellwether feared the glass would break out of it.


	2. to: bogo. from: clawhauser.

Martin fumed all the way back to the precinct. He drove his squad car with an abrupt, jerky anger, crammed into the tiny metal box so that his shoulders rested far too close to his horns for his own liking.

  
"Stupid city-wide... Absolutely crazy..." he mumbled furiously to himself, yanking the steering wheel as he pulled into his parking spot and shut the car door.

  
As soon as he walked into the building, he saw Benjamin Clawhauser grinning happily at a new inmate, waving his phone around. _Probably playing that Gazelle app_ , Martin thought to himself. A ghost of a smile played on his lips, but quickly faded when he remembered what he had to do.

  
The notice had turned up on his desk earlier that morning in the form of a carefully printed letterhead, complete with auto-filled signiature and false sympathy. "Mutually beneficial," the letter had read. _As if this would be at all beneficial_ , snorted Martin. It would just break Benjamin- Officer Clawhauser's heart.

  
He didn't want to do it. Martin didn't want to walk over to that over-excited, exuberant pile of giddiness and tell him "you're out, go squat in the basement, no one wants you here because of some silly, stupid idea that because you're a predator, you're bad". He didn't want to see the shine in those warm eyes fade.

  
The inmate was shuffled away and Clawhauser looked up, beaming when he saw locked eyes with the Chief. And there was that embarrassing, childish flutter in his chest.

  
"Chief! Chief, over here!" He waved a soft paw high up in the air, cupping the other around his mouth so that his already loud voice would carry. Martin rolled his eyes but came over, anyway.

  
"What is it, Officer?"

  
"Now, Chief, I know you told me not to tell," whispered Clawhauser, reaching under his desk and playfully glancing from side to side, "But I just couldn't help myself. When I saw this, I said to myself, 'Chief Bogo _needs_ this!' So, I got it!" He produced a tissue-wrapped package from under the desk and slid it across the counter into Bogo's hands, winking. "It's our little secret."

  
Martin's thoughts swam, and he couldn't find the words. So, instead of saying anything, he nodded to Clawhauser, picked up the package and put it under one arm, then shuffled off to his office. He didn't mention the letter that now lay crumpled in a tight ball at the bottom of his wastepaper basket. _Delaying the inevitable_ , he thought as the elevator doors opened in front of him. But even if it was only for a few hours, seeing Clawhauser happy was nice.

  
The Chief pushed the thought down, down, down, until it was nothing, but he could not do the same to the package under his arm. Once in his office, he shut and locked the door and sat behind his desk, running a hand over the soft, crinkled tissue paper. There were little sugary paw prints all over the paper, and Martin chuckled to himself.

  
He quietly pulled it open and saw Gazelle's face beaming up at him. There, in his hands, was an XXXL Gazelle's 'Wonderforest' Tour T-Shirt. He hadn't been able to go to this tour (working a particularly nasty case of prey poisonings), and the second the shirts went online, they'd been bought up. How had Clawhauser gotten one? A little white note fell as Martin unfolded the shirt, landing in his lap.

  
"Hope it fits- it went on sale at, like, 2 am, so I may have read the size wrong! Remember, like Gazelle says: "don't beat yourself up, don't need to run so fast, sometimes we come last but we did our best"!" Clawhauser had signed his message with a little smiley faced cat, and Martin couldn't help but grin to himself.

  
"Mayor Bellwether on line one, sir," buzzed Martin's intercom.

  
"Keep her on hold," he grumbled.

  
"Sir, it's the Mayor..."

  
"And I said **_keep her on hold_ _!_** " Sighing and squeezing his temples, he pressed the intercom. "Or just take a memo. I'm out of the office. I don't know..."

  
"Understood, sir."

  
Within five minutes, an email memo popped up on his screen. He begrudingly clicked it open.

  
"Mayor Bellwether wants you to bring Officer Hopps to her office to discuss new ad campaign, and reminds you to tell Officer Clawhauser about his re-assignment."

  
He quickly sent the email to the garbage and leaned back in his chair, sighing. After a moment, he pressed the intercom. The shirt caught his eye and he hastened to fold the paper over it, obscuring the gift.

  
"Donna. I need you to compose an email to, um... to Officer Clawhauser."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i knOW i promised it would get fluffier, and it did, right? if only for a moment. woe betide us all


	3. to: clawhauser. from: bogo.

Benjamin sniffled to himself quietly as he clomped down the stairs to his new "office" in records. All alone in this dusty, dark hole in the ground... the mere thought brought more tears to his eyes.

  
"It's okay, Bennie boy," he whispered to himself, "You're gonna be just fine."

  
As if the entire 'predators going savage' scare wasn't bad enough, he was being punished for something he hadn't even done. It was already a scary situation, leaving him lying in bed late at night, wide awake and wondering if tomorrow, when he woke up, he wouldn't be himself anymore. Would he forget everything and everyone he cared about?

  
The Chief hadn't even looked at him as he packed his belongings. The memory burned Benjamin's heart. Chief Bogo had looked everywhere but at him, and he knew why. He was the enemy, now. A wild predator, dangerous to anyone who crossed his path.

  
As he arrived at his new, dirt-covered desk, Benjamin huffed to himself and pinched his belly a bit. _Right, like **this** could ever be dangerous to anyone_ , he thought. He'd gone out and bought himself a box of 'pick-me-up' doughnuts, and as he pulled out the squeaky, decrepit desk chair, he opened the box.

  
It was a bleak scene indeed. Benjamin almost didn't have the appetite anymore. In fact, looking at the doughnuts made him even sadder and he pushed the pink box away to a distant corner of his desk. Just as he was beginning to sink further into his despair, a loud knock rang through the room.

  
"Hello?," he called, turning around to see Chief Bogo standing in the metal doorway, apologetically crouched. In one hand he held a little pink box matching the one Benjamin had bought earlier.

  
"Oh, Chief! Nice to see you!"

  
He still stung a little, but seeing his crush did manage to lift his spirits. Even if the Chief didn't like him anymore, Benjamin would always care for Martin Bogo. The Chief gave him a weak, tentative smile.

  
"May I come in?"

  
"Well, sure! It's not much but, hey," he gave a similarly small smile, "At least I didn't get fired."

  
Benjamin wondered if he should have said that, because as soon as the words left his lips, Bogo stood taller, his expression darkening. His empty hand clenched at his side and his nostrils flared, making Benjamin curl in on himself a bit. It was hard to forget what an intimidating figure Bogo could cut, the one that now stood before Benjamin.

  
"That wouldn't ever happen, so don't worry about it. You're- you're not going to get fired." Bogo looked sheepishly down at his feet, his stature retreating slowly. "I'm sorry."

  
"For what?"

  
There was a pause, and the air was filled with something Benjamin couldn't identify. Bogo squirmed a little, tail swatting at empty air, then took a deep breath.

  
"I should've told you in person, I shouldn't have ignored you, I- uhm. I should've put up more of a fight about you getting moved," he gestured at the grimy room widly, "Down to this dump."

  
He moved forward slightly, then caught sight of the pink box on Benjamin's desk. Bogo's eyes widened and he looked meekly down at his own box.

  
"Oh. Crap. You got your own."

  
"No, no, it's fine," interjected Benjamin, "It's okay."

  
Giving what he hoped was a winning smile, Benjamin stood up and closed the gap between the two, then poked a finger at the box in Bogo's hands. Benjamin tried to ignore the palpitations in his heart from the proximity and keep his usual cheery demeanor up.

  
"Let's see what you got!"

  
"Well," Bogo shyly mumbled, then lifted the lid. Inside were a row of three glazed chocolate doughnuts, decorated in a light dusting of rainbow sprinkles, each one written on in red frosting letters. "Try Every Thing" was scrawled in shaky handwriting and Benjamin couldn't help but smile.

  
"I did the letters myself, if you couldn't tell by the crap job of it."

  
"They're adorable!" Benjamin quickly pulled out his phone and snapped several pictures of the doughnuts, then stepped back and pointed the camera for a wider shot. "Smile, Chief!"

  
"What?!"

  
"I said smile! I want a picture of you and my special doughnuts!"

  
Bogo was frozen for a moment, then his usually surly visage was split with a soft smile. He held the box up so its contents were visible and snap, there it was. The flash had made Bogo's eyes look a little strange, and his posture was tense, but the image was so precious that Benjamin could hardly keep from squealing. This was a dream come true.

  
"It's gonna be my new wallpaper," grinned Benjamin. "It's so cute!"

  
"I- I-," Bogo stuttered, but Benjamin just turned his phone so the Chief could see it and beamed.

  
"See? Cute!"

  
A pause.

  
"Thank you, um, Benjamin."

  
Oh. Benjamin's little heart skipped and pattered in his chest, and he felt warmth in his cheeks. He'd used his first name. His first name!

  
"Well, I ought to get going," he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck, but Benjamin impulsively reached out and put a paw on the Chief's wide wrist.

  
"Wait. Stay and share these with me." He gave a little nervous laugh, then gestured at the bigger box he'd purchased earlier. "I can't get through these doughnuts all alone!"

  
Yes he could.

  
But he didn't want to.

  
Bogo paused, then nodded and looked around until he found a rusty fold-out chair and pulled it up next to Benjamin's grungy desk. Both plopped down, grabbed a doughnut, and quietly glanced at each other as if searching for something. Benjamin flashed a brief smile and Bogo quickly looked away.

  
"So... did you like it?"

  
"What?"

  
"The lil' present I got you!," grinned Benjamin as he bumped Bogo's shoulder jovially. Bogo smiled and snorted, rolling his eyes as he took a bite of his doughnut. After a few chews, he cleared his throat and looked Benjamin in the eyes seriously.

  
"Loved it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaand the fluff train pulls into the station.


	4. to: ? from: ?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> bonus chapter

"I forgive you, by the way."

  
They were leaning on the desk, watching a Gazelle interview on Benjamin's phone. Martin looked up, surveying Benjamin's face nervously.

  
"You do?"

  
"Of course," he smiled, glancing away from his phone to lock eyes with Martin. "It's not your fault."

  
_Yes it is_ , Martin thought. But a paw rested on his hoof and a warm, almost white-hot feeling of sparks jumped through his arm and straight into his heart. Yikes.

  
"Besides, you're always nice to me, even though I'm just a glorified secretary." Benjamin's eyes were so honest and open. _Don't think that about yourself_ , reprimanded Martin. "Thank you."

  
"Thank you, Benjamin."

  
"For what?"

  
He didn't know, really. Martin just smiled and let himself enjoy the moment. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yep theyre gonna kiss and go to gazelle together and kiss some more. maybe ill write another story if this one goes over well/im not publicly flogged for posting this

**Author's Note:**

> im not a furry, okay. i just. saw this movie and it melted my heart, especially these two goons who are Clearly In Love. im embarrassed, but not enough to NOT post this. (ps it gets fluffier, i promise.)


End file.
